Brian Zafron: I Eat Web 2.0 for Breakfast

Facebook groups are amazing. The only better things in this world, as far as I’m concerned, are meals at The Ivy, an A-list celebrity’s nipple slip, and perhaps – I’m a little torn about this one- winning the lottery.

An effective Facebook group can spread like wildfire, spanning national and international networks, reaching a breadth of demographics you can’t even find at a Los Angeles 7-11. Or conversely, if the group is esoteric in nature, “I’m Obsessed With Button-Fly Jeans, and I’m Not Ashamed To Admit It”, for example, membership can increase with equal speed, but with dramatically more targeted results.

For an individual or company seeking promotion, Facebook groups maintain the upper hand on applications, pages, and networks. The reason is that groups not only take mere seconds to join, but seconds to share – with one friend or every friend in every associated network - and seconds to comprehend. When a user receives a group invitation that is even mildly amusing, inspiring, or provocative, he/she is likely to ask “why not?” before “why?” and when prompted to invite more friends, the same order of questioning applies.

As the administrator of a Facebook group, you’re in the driver’s seat 100% of the time. Not only do you wield control over all content on the group’s page – particularly useful in active groups with frequent postings – but with the simple click of a mouse, you can send a message to the entire group that shows up in each individual member’s mailbox. Just imagine your influence when the group is tied closely into your promotional content! Unfortunately, the caveat is that mass group messages are limited to groups with fewer that 1,200 members. Facebook programmers, however, are currently working to eliminate this caveat.

So how do you create a kick-ass Facebook group? Here are some tips:

• Title is everything. The success of your group depends first and foremost on the title. It serves as the group’s calling card, often the only criteria in an individual’s decision to join the group or investigate it further. A group can easily flourish with a stellar title and crappy or non-existent content.
• Tap into passions. Users associate themselves with groups that ring true to their stronger preferences. Groups, after all, speak to the type of person who constitutes them. They are highly visible components of one’s profile. So before you go ahead and create your group about fetishes for albino rodents, I’d suggest you think twice… and maybe go see a therapist. Examples: “If you remember this you grew up in the 90’s” (1,399,198 members), “I Love Naps” (109,286 members), “Addicted to the OC” (34,982 members)

• Articulate the un-articulated. People flock to groups about truisms they’ve never fully expressed or identified. If you can give them that “ah ha!” moment when they see your group invitation, you’re in like a skankily-dressed girl at a posh night club. Examples: “Enough with the Poking, Lets Just Have Sex” (354,744 members), “You were sexy until I saw that cigarette in your hand” (62,533 members), “People Who Always Have To Spell Their Names For Other People” (310,379 members)

• Exploit Current Events. Many successful groups have flourished due to the buzz of current events. Why not utilize the publicity that has already been created by mainstream media? Examples: “Barack Obama (One Million Strong for Barack)” (442,033 members), “Stay in Iraq until the Job Is Done” (57,874 members), “One Million People against Crime in South Africa” (71,622 members)

• Just plain funny. Who doesn’t love a good laugh? Try creating a group that is so humorous people feel compelled to participate. Make them piss their pants and in their state of delirious urine soakage, click on the “join” button. Examples: “I Secretly Want To Punch Slow Walking People In The Back Of The Head” (742,154 members), “When I Was Your Age, Pluto Was A Planet” (1,239,153 members ), “Disney Gave Me Unrealistic Expectations About Love” (126,768 members)

• Make a spectacle of your size. Many groups achieve population explosion due to a direct solicitation for help with their growth. Sometimes this solicitation appears in the title, isolating size as the group’s principle interest. Contributing to a group’s growth can be fun. The best members treat the process like a game. Examples: “Six Degrees Of Separation - The Experiment” (4,215,241 members), “Let’s set and break a Guiness Record!!!! Approved by guinnessworldrecords.com” (2,749,370 members), “If this group reaches 4,294,967,296 it might cause an integer overflow” (58,681 members)

Along these lines, consider including instructions on the group’s page that detail how members can invite their friends to join. Instructions often provide a tremendous impetus for action.

Sample instructions to be posted on a group’s homepage:

1) Click on “Invite People to Join” from the menu on the right.

2) Select all your friends

3) Click on “Send invitation”

• Cheat. Sometimes the easiest way to create a behemoth group is to rip off someone else’s idea. Simply take the title and concept from a thriving group and add your own little spin. This spin might entail an altered perspective or just a variation of punctuation. Examples: “I’m Glad Pluto’s No Longer a Planet; It Makes Gustav Holst’s Suite Complete” (25,215 members; original group named “When I Was Your Age, Pluto Was A Planet”), “Six Degrees of Separation” (414,994 members, original group named “Six Degrees Of Separation - The Experiment”), “Save Scrabulous!!” (6,489 members; original group named “Save Scrabulous”)

• Avoid blatant advertisement. Don’t throw your promotional content in the faces of potential group members. Lure them in with a creative title and premise, then after you’ve built a solid community, begin your PR sprinkling. If people care about your group, then there’s a significantly better chance they’ll care about what you are promoting. But like a heterosexual man’s enjoyment of America’s Next Top Model, always promote with moderation.

• Active disseminators. No group will ever take flight without a core group of users to spread the word. It’s necessary to form relationships with the appropriate niche that will not only remain active in the group later down the line, but provide the initial invitation blitz. Basically, you need cheerleaders, not oafish offensive lineman.

With these tips in mind, you’re ready lace up your shoes and start some kick-ass Facebook groups. But until programmers lift the 1,200 group limit for mass messages, I’d recommend trying to create a slew of groups with 1,200 or fewer members.

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